I know nothing about him apart from his gangster-lizard-overlord family. A few desultory searches haven’t revealed much, other than he might, just possibly, perhaps, not be the Cthulhu-alike I was expecting from the name.
Given that Hills is unlikely to win, regardless of her capabilities (because woman, because another Dem), and that Trump is a freaking horrorshow we can rely on to crash and burn in a bonfire of his own vanities, is Jeb the best of a bad bunch? Is he “his own man” or just another chip off the old blockhead?
Any links to sane, balanced overviews of the man and his policies (if he has any) much appreciated. Or post your own wild opinions here in order that I may formulate my own thereof.
(My search for a picture of him that wasn’t boring also drew a blank.)
It is too early to say.
Clinton is polling well, 16 months out. She doesn’t have any real rivals at the moment, despite Bernie garnering plaudits. Jim Webb started too late, otherwise I think he’d have a real shout.
Part of HC’s problem is that she has, on too many occasions, skirted near the pooh – Benghazi, email, Whitewater…
Republicans? Bush may genuinely struggle, especially if he doesn’t do well in early primaries. There isn’t a real, credible, GOP front runner right now. The fact that he’s a grade A shit with the sMe intellect as his brother won’t help. Keep an eye on Marco Rubio.
“He’s a grade A shit”. This is what I’m interested in – is he? What’s he done/said to deserve being called one? I’m not saying he isn’t – I don’t know – but I’d appreciate evidence of shittitude.
I heard that Jim Webb is polling well in Galveston and Wichita…
Also on Rosecrans Blvd.
https://www.scottwalker.com/
A useful site for this kind of thing is RationaWiki (very good on US evangelicals & right wing pols):
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jeb_Bush
Just the ticket. Thank you.
Looking at the tags under the OP, I am looking forward to anticipated developments to this thread. I never knew Lovely Kate was part of the dynasty.
Top of head, and may need fleshing out:
Terry Schiavo
Applauding the swift boat attacks on Kerry but then declaring veterans off limits when it was McCain being attacked.
His stance on unwed mothers.
Using his brother AAC his foreign policy adviser.
Even the Republicans I know don’t like the guy.
I’m convinced. Off with his head.
All the Republican candidates (and there are many) are suffering from the toxic legacy left by Karl Rove and by the existence of the Tea Party. Rove’s strategy was to ‘fire up the hillbillies’ by fighting culture wars and, thus, ensuring that the base turned out in record numbers. These culture wars have, to all intents and purposes, been lost by them, yet continue to preoccupy the base.
The Tea Party zealots refuse to accept any candidate who does not follow their programme to the letter, loudly declaring them to be RINOs. ( Republican in name only) Their programme is of extremely limited appeal to the broad electorate, but the need to win the primaries means the candidates have to tack to the right to appease them. This, inevitably, leaves the eventual victor frantically attempting to move back to the centre, thus infuriating the Tea Party members and confusing the average voter as to where they actually stand.
As regards Jeb, I’d suggest he’s much more of a pragmatist than his brother, who was, essentially, a (willing?) prisoner of the neocons. He’s also a great deal more able, though that again is not too high a bar to overcome.
He’s married to a Mexican, which would help immeasurably in raising the pitifully low percentage of the Hispanic vote that they desperately need to attract.
A significant percentage of the Republican voters are obsessed with the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico and the sound and fury accompanying this issue unsurprisingly alienates the growing number of Hispanic voters.
Abortion is still a hot button issue with the hardliners, though of limited interest to mainstream voters.
As regards Jeb’s supposed unpopularity with Republican voters,this should be regarded as a positive as he is a great deal more pragmatic and in touch with the mainstream as regards the issues the zealots are consumed by.
That a self-promoting buffoon like Trump is popular with the base for slandering immigrants as ‘rapists’ just about says it all.
As with the anti-EU faction within the Conservative Party and the pro-Corbyn wing of the Labour Party, there are always factions that would prefer their party be reduced to a sect to maintain its purity, rather than go about the messy business of winning elections.
(for slitheref or those who may be interested in the polarisation of US politics, may I recommend ‘Nixonland’)
Being a fairly moderate person, I used to vote the person, not the party. No more. I doubt I will live long enough for the Republicans to redeem themselves in my eyes. The party has gone completely off the rails and those who otherwise seem intelligent enough either delude themselves as to the worth of the nonsense that come out of their mouths or they are just flat out lying in order to pander to the monstrosity of a base the party has created.
Denying science while showing a complete misunderstanding of how science works (no, your uninformed opinion is not a reasonable basis for picking and choosing what to believe)
Continuing to show a religious level of faith in economic policies which have been repeatedly shown by actual experience to be incapable of doing what they are supposed to do.
Asserting that the US is a Christian country and that therefore any behavior or beliefs that do not conform to your particular brand of Christianity are un-American.
Believing that racism no longer exists and those who claim it does are phony victims playing the race card.
Creating an electoral process where candidates must literally go around and kiss the rings of the plutocrats in order to have any hope of attaining the nomination of their party.
Thinking lazy poor people (of a certain color -shhhhhh) are living high on the hog off the handouts of hard-working ‘real’ Americans.
Making it possible for virtually anyone who wants to to walk around with military-grade weapons anywhere they want. In stores. In McDonald’s. In bars. On college campuses. Etc.
Refusing to believe that the twice duly elected American president is anything other than a secret Muslim terrorist bent on destroying the country he hates.
And on and on.
I can’t even begin to understand what is behind the completely irrational and ugly behavior being displayed by people who would otherwise appear to be educated and reasonably intelligent. I will leave that to the psychologists and really I believe it has come to that point. I’m not comparing them to Nazis and I do think there will be a correction in the US but you start to feel you can imagine what it would be like to see the very beginnings of a country going completely off the deep end. And it’s scary.
As far as Jeb is concerned he has recently given no indication he is any brighter than his brother. He made a jaw-dropping claim just the other day. Apparently the only thing the middle class needs to do to improve their situation and take care of this pesky little inequality problem is to………..work more hours. He really said that. Does he really not know that Americans work longer hours than virtually all other developed countries? Does he really not know that Americans are working many more hours a week than they did decades ago? Does he really not know that wages have stagnated while productivity has soared? Can he not see with his own eyes that it now takes two incomes in most cases to lead a middle class life?
So no. I won’t be voting for Jeb. And I will be grateful for Obama til the day I die.
“Refusing to believe that the twice duly elected American president is anything other than a secret Muslim terrorist bent on destroying the country he hates.”
Don’t forget about his plan to put us all in secret FEMA camps…
eastcoast – IIRC, I read an article recently that showed wages in the US had, in real terms, not improved since the ’70s and, as you point out, households now work much longer hours.
As regards the ‘plutocrats’, in the interest of even-handedness, I would point out that the Clinton Foundation appears to be a corrupt slush fund and that the amounts Hillary plans to spend to secure the nomination are truly astronomical. The amounts spent on races for the Senate and the Presidency beggar belief.
Yes and Obama set records with his fundraising. I have no problem with people playing to win under the rules that exist. They’d be fools not to. But the current ridiculous financial rules for fundraising were set largely by Republicans/conservatives with help from the conservatives on the Supreme Court. Now, in the US, money equals speech and corporations are people. This is no way to run a country. There are movements afoot to amend the constitution and I’m a supporter.
But even under current rules, Republicans tend to get much more of their funding from large donors while a much higher proportion of funding for Democrats comes from numerous small donations. The press has taken to calling what the Republicans have been up to lately the ‘plutocrat primary.’ It’s really, really awful.
I watched an interview with Obama the other night and marvelled once more at his intelligence , his calmness and his easy authority.
I don’t know enough about Jeb yet to know if he has similar qualities.
Completely agree that it’s now way out of hand. Iread in the NY Times that Clinton is planning on spending $2.5bn to seek election. Even by US standards, this seems extreme. I doubt she’s raising much of that from small donors.
There countless info graphics out there showing number of donations and size of donations.
Clinton and Bush are getting a small number of big donations. Sanders, for example, has lots of little. Guess which methodology will win?
Bush is in with the money men, and is the guy to beat. His problem will be finding a ticket balancer to help with the North. Clinton can easily find a purple Southern Dem.